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As journalists and fans, there are certain things we say or write that come back and bite us in the rear, things friends and readers never let us forget.
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| Tom Brady has had an almost annual grip on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. (Getty Images) |
My father once said Earl Campbell wouldn't be any good in the NFL because he was too slow to the hole.
A radio colleague once insisted Ron Mercer would be a better NBA player than Tim Duncan.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
We all make mistakes. They happen to scouts and general managers, too. Only theirs count. And hurt a whole heck of a lot more.
So I'm about to fess up to a mistake -- a big one, one that has followed me around for a long time and made me fodder for an entire New England region.
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Two years ago, I didn't put Tom Brady in my annual CBS SportsLine.com Top 50 NFL Players list. Boy, did I hear it and continue to hear it. You would have thought I trudged into Fenway Park wearing a Yankees jersey or defamed the Kennedy name.
Truth is, I was wrong. Maybe I didn't think he was a Top 50 player at the time, but time has proved me wrong.
Brady has it. It's hard to define it, but whatever it is, he has it.
This is an instance in which the numbers don't tell the greatness of the player. Consider this: He was 10th in the league in passing yards last season, ninth in passer rating and sixth in touchdown passes. Aaron Brooks had more yards, Brian Griese had a higher passer rating and Jake Delhomme threw more touchdowns.
None of those players will sniff the Hall, unless Griese is there to see his dad's bust.
Brady is on his way.